Deval Patrick on Drugs

Democrat

Warehousing non-violent offenders is a costly policy failure

In cases of non-violent drug offenders, we have to deal with the fact that simply warehousing non-violent offenders is a costly policy failure. Our spending on prisons has grown 30 percent in the past decade, much of that because of longer
sentences for first-time and nonviolent drug offenders. We have moved, at massive public expense, from treatment for drug offenders to indiscriminate prison sentences, and gained nothing in public safety.
92 percent of the total prison population--92 percent--is eligible for release at some point, and many come out more dangerous than they were when they went in. States across the country--most recently, Ohio,
Delaware and South Carolina--have already recognized the folly of mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders and made significant reforms.